Zetta Elliott's Blog, page 127
February 2, 2010
is it any wonder?
…why so many YA covers feature thin white girls? Take a look at the "Hollywood" issue of Vanity Fair, and read this critique:
Mitali Perkins also notes that YA books for boys rarely feature models, so why are YA books for girls covered in the same old same old?
four interviews you don't want to miss
Don't you love getting inside the head of an author or illustrator? I do! Here are some great interviews you won't want to miss:
Novelist & activist blogger Carleen Brice is featured at Color Online. And don't forget that we'll be discussing Children of the Waters this Friday at Brown Girl Speaks…
Multiculturalism Rocks! blogger Nathalie Mvondo is featured at Reading in Color. And Nathalie interviews the publisher of Lee & Low Books at her blog…
Illustrator AG Ford is featured on Day Two...
February 1, 2010
check out Paper Tigers
It feels great sharing this news with you on Day One of Black History Month:
The Purposes of the Spirit of PaperTigers Project (SPT)
To donate a selection of books which reflect the aims of PaperTigers, putting them into the hands of children in areas of need in different parts of the world.
The Spirit of PaperTigers project is best understood within the overall goals of PaperTigers: that is, to encourage literacy, helping to make children hungry readers and thus helping them form a lifelong...
January 31, 2010
what's in a challenge?
Do you participate in reading challenges? I don't, though I can see how it might be a useful, structured way to read outside your comfort zone. But does it have a lasting impact on the participant? Debbie Reese has an interesting post over at her blog, American Indians in Children's Literature; stop by and read her reservations about the effectiveness of the current People of Color Challenge. Is a free book the real incentive for folks who sign up to "read brown"?
On Friday I went up to...
January 28, 2010
life-changing books
Susan recently announced the latest Diversity Roll Call assignment: "I want us to shift from the importance of representation and focus on how difference or a different perspective changed us in a meaningful way. Have you ever read a book and the character's perspective opened you to ideas, beliefs or realities that you had never considered? Tell us about a work or an author whose body of work changed how you looked at the world, others or yourself. Have you read ever read a book and had a...
January 26, 2010
January 25, 2010
what IS "street lit"?
About a month ago, my publisher got a request for a review copy of A Wish After Midnight. We were pretty excited–Wish was going to be featured in Library Journal! But when I found out my novel would be reviewed in a "street lit" column, I balked—there's NO WAY my book fits within that category! Just a glance at some of those covers made me cringe. Then I visited their site and found this definition, which helped me prove my point:
Typical elements include a rags-to-riches theme...
January 24, 2010
don't stop believing
Not gonna lie—I can probably sing most of Journey's songs b/c I was a teenager in the '80s and know all the words by heart. And face it—that's a seriously uplifting song (and you have to hear the band's new Filipino singer, Arnel, rock-it-out!). Right now, though, I'm talking about the whitewashing controversy—please don't think the problem's been solved now that Bloomsbury is working on a new cover for Magic Under Glass. Susan and Ari are sharing ways you can keep fighting the good...
January 23, 2010
life
My Horn Book essay comes out in March; this is one of the (very few) lines that wound up getting cut:
My favorite line from The Sound of Music: 'When God closes a door, somewhere He opens a window.' Canada, for me, was a windowless room.
But then I moved to NYC, and suddenly I was in a house filled with endless doors and windows—some opened for me, some did not. But I always felt I had options, that I could make something happen. Yesterday, right before my USA Today interview, I got an...
